To Festrivus or Not to Festivus...

OK, so festive Festivus everyone. The Christmas Eve, Eve celebration. I don't even have a Festivus pole or anything. I do have a small piece of PVC pipe - not quite all aluminum.

I am not sure if I will "celebrate" Festivus when I get to my apartment - but I am sure it will be discussed amounst friends.

Whatever you do - with or without Festivus - Be Safe!

New Ezine Articles About Democratic Policing

As I have been working with the UN for some time there is always reference to traing new police agencies with the concepts of Democratic Policing. I have yet to find any materials that is clear, concise and practical on the subject available to UN Police.

I decided to make my own and I have begun a series of articles over at Ezine. The first is simply called "Democratic Policing in Emerging Nations."

I am not sure yet how long the series will be, but I will make it into an e-book available for all UN Police to use. I believe it will be quite a handy guide for teaching the priciples of democratic policing.

What Else is New(s)?

Insurgents hacking our drones... that in itself is not a big surprise that they would at least try this. The surprise is anyone can buy the software for $26 and download it.

I believe this goes along with our whitehouse's great security :)

Weather Too Cold for Protesters at Conference on Climate Change (and stuff)

Ok, now the headline should read “Too Cold to Protest Global Warming.” I reckon that puts a little irony on the UN’s Conference on Climate Change. Makes just one more point for climategate.

Fear not though – Barack Obama's teleprompter will save the world from global warming (surely he can do something to justify the Peace Prize). Anyhow, Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth on this today.

Houston Texans - Killing my Soul

I had a lot of faith in he houston Texans this year. They have the talent. They have the skills.

What they do not have - is the will to win. If you look at a lot of winning teams over the years, they are not always the most talented or the best as far as stats. What they do have - is they find ways to win!

This season, the Texans have consistently found ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. No, not one or two players, the team as a whole. When they need defense - the defense crumbles. When they need scores - the offense fumbles... or interceptions... or miss field goals. Not any one player - the entire team has this knack.

Stop breaking my heart Texans - find a way to win - quite trying to "not lose" that never, ever works!

I wish I had the answer - but I know it is not personnel, or anything like that - it is attitude, and you guys just do not have what it takes to win!

World Toilet Day (Belated)

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. However, I just learned that World Toilet Day was yesterday 19 November.

I guess I missed out on "the big Squat."

As this seems funny to read about - it is a good cause and a serious issue in many countries of the world.

Maybe next year.

Soldiers Shot at Ft Hood and Hezbollah Does Not Get it's Arms

I was shocked to see the story about the psychiatrist that went "postal" at Ft. Hood. Then again, whay would anyone send this guy on deployment to Afghanistan when you look at his history.

The "Big Guy" aka BO really messed up with his speech about it starting off thanking people. Hey TOTUS what happened - you forget the real time update? He seemed so non serious and so unconcerned when he spoke - I gues you forgot to add (show empathy and concern here). The Big Guy is still trying to figure out if the new series about him is good or bad ("V")

In other news stuff a really cool raid by Israeli Defense Forces netted over 500 tons of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah. Remember, according to BO Iran is not a threat at this point in time :)

You can see the video here:

Barack Obama - Again

OK, so tell me what I am missing. We have a president who has done nothing to change any situation in any war, managed to push the economy to worsen and now he gets the Nobel Peace Prize for what he may do. Actually the prize should go to his teleprompter, after all it controls all he says :P

This proves that the world loves Barack Obama, no matter what he does or doesn't do. I work in a very international setting and many from other countries ask me "what did he win the prize for?" "What did he do?"

Sorry, all I can say is blame the Norwegians. :)

Be Safe

Obama and NASCAR

Well Obama "honored" NASCAR drivers and the sport the other day at the White House. No, there was no burn out on the White House lawn or anything like that. He did say that the "Big 3" auto makers belonged in "Nazz-car" (as the Big Guy likes to say it).

Did the teleprompter explain to him who the big three are? or does he think it is GM, Ford and Toyota? Or does he still consider Chrysler one of the big 3? (None of the honorees that were present were Dodge drivers - look at the end) So what is the message? Then again since the government owns most of GM maybe it should be re-named American Motors - after the old defunct car company. :)

I guess the White House staff realizes that in the crashed and still crashing economy ( jobless rate is even higher than projected) that NASCAR is the sport hardest hit. Since it is the number one spectator sport in America - it is significant.

What is really ridiculous is several of the stories written about the event do not even name all of the drivers invited... I guess the reporters forgot that who is one of the w's you are supposed to have in a story. Just the AP news stories and Sports Illustrated have left out such "details." I mean how many stories do I have to pull up to find this information anyways? Some articles say 9 of the top 12 - of last year's drivers... duh - how hard would it have been to actually report on the story?

After digging around I found that the nine are: Dale Earhhardt Jr.(Chevrolet), Denny Hamlin (Toyota), Jeff Burton (Chevrolet), Greg Biffle (Ford), Carl Edwards (Ford), Clint Bowyer (Chevrolet), Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet), and Tony Stewart (Chevrolet), and Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet).

Anyhow - Stay Safe!

Timothy Geithner Cannot Sell His House!

OK, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is supposed to be the "man with the plan" to get us out of the economic mess. Which, despite all the positive talk, is declining rather than getting better. So the guy that is trying to fix our economic mess cannot even sell his own house.

So now he is renting it out for less than the mortgage payments. This sounds like a typical government plan to me.

"Geithner put his five-bedroom Tudor near leafy Larchmont on the market for $1.635 million in February, after heading to Washington for his job as the nation's top economic official.

A few weeks after the asking price was dropped to $1.575 million, the home was rented for $7,500 a month on May 21, said the agents, Scott Stiefvater of Stiefvater Real Estate and Debbie Meiliken of Keller Williams Realty New York.

Neither was directly involved in the rental; the name of the broker and agency that arranged it were not immediately available.

Although $7,500 might seem like a lot of rent, it probably falls a bit short of the monthly mortgage payments on the Geithners' two loans totaling $1.25 million, plus $27,000 a year in property taxes.

Treasury Department representatives didn't immediately return calls about Geithner's home Monday and Tuesday. He was in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders."

The story can be found here.

Maybe he should think about lowering the price a bit more.

What do you think Tim?

Y'all be safe!